Several species of very beautiful honey-suckers,
full of metallic colours, used to frequent the bright red flowers
of a creeper that generally clambered up the trees overhanging the
streams, and these flowers proved very popular with many butterflies,
especially the giant gold and black ORNITHOPTERAS and various rare
PAPILIOS of great beauty. There was one bird I was most anxious to
get, and though I saw it once I had to leave Luzon without it. It was
a PITTA, a kind of ground thrush. Thrushes of this genus are amongst
the most brilliant of all birds, and in my own collections I possess
a great number of different species that I have collected in other
countries. This one that I was so anxious to get was locally called
"Tinkalu." Amongst both Filipinos and Negritos it has the reputation
of being the cleverest of all birds, and, as Vic expressed it,
"like a man." It hops away into the thickest undergrowth and hides
at the least sound. Certainly no bird has ever given me such a lot of
worry and trouble. Many a weary hour did I spend going through swamps
and rivers, bamboo and thorny palms, dripping with perspiration and
tormented by swarms of mosquitos and sand-flies, and all to no purpose!
Thanks to Vic, I soon picked up most of the local names of the various
birds, which were often given on account of the sounds they made.
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